Developing The Groove In Your Mix

Normally every Friday I post a song analysis that's picked from reader requests. This Friday we'll trying something a bit different that's related to song analysis, as well as mixing.

My new book called The Audio Mixing Bootcamp is just being released at the NAMM show by Alfred Music Publishing. You're probably thinking, "Bobby's already written The Mixing Engineer's Handbook, so why is he doing another one on mixing?" Good question. What I realized was that MEH (as well as most other books on mixing) are primarily conceptual. That's fine if you already have some mixing chops and want to get better, but it's not so helpful for someone that's just starting mixing and just can't make things sound right.

So the idea behind The Audio Mixing Bootcamp is that it's a book of mixing exercises. The exercises might take you to a place where things sound terrible, but then bring you back to where things sound better than anything you've ever done. Now you know what works and why, as well as what doesn't. And that's the whole idea of the book. "Try this." "Wow, does that sound bad." "Now, try this." "Wow, does that sound great."

I'll be posting some excerpts and exercises from the book in coming weeks, but let's start off with one that will get you listening, which is perfect for song analysis. Every song is built around the groove, and you have to find that first before your mix can rock. In this excerpt, there are a few exercises to get you listening deep into a song that you know in order to train yourself to identify the groove.
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"The groove is the pulse of the song. It’s that undeniable feeling that makes you want to get off your seat and shake your booty. You don’t have to know what it is as much as recognize it when it’s there, or when it’s not. Despite what you might think, it’s not only dance music that has a groove. Every kind of music, regardless if it’s R&B, jazz, rock, country, or some alien space music, has a groove, but the better the music is performed, the “deeper” the groove is.

Contrary to popular belief, a groove doesn’t have to have perfect time because a groove is created by tension against even time. As a result, the playing doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be even in its execution. In fact, music loses its groove if it’s too perfect, which is why a song can sound lifeless after it’s been quantized in a workstation. It’s lost it’s groove.

Another misconception is that the groove always comes from the drums and bass, since it could come from other instruments as well. Some songs, like The Police’s “Every Breath You Take” has the rhythm guitar establish the groove, while most of the Motown hits of the 60s relied on James Jamerson’s bass.

Regardless of what instrument is providing the groove of the song, if you want a great mix, you’ve got to find it and develop it first before you do anything else.

Exercise Pod - Identifying The Groove
E3.3: In order to hear a groove at it’s best, let’s go to the masters.
A) Play any song by James Brown, Prince, Sly and the Family Stone or George Clinton. Can you feel the pulse of the song, the groove?
B) Can you identify the instruments that are providing the groove?

E3.4: Pick one of your favorite songs and have a listen.
A) Can you feel the pulse of the song? What instrument(s) are providing the groove?
B) Play a song at random. Can you feel the pulse of the song? What instrument(s) are providing the groove?
C) Play a song from a genre that you seldom listen to. Can you feel the pulse of the song? What instrument(s) are providing the groove?

E3.5: Now listen to all of those songs again. What makes the groove stand out? Is it the balance of the instruments? Is it because the instruments providing the groove are louder? Is it the tone of the instruments? Are they punchier sounding than the others?"

I don't have any excerpts from this book up on my website yet (soon I hope), but you can read excerpts from my other books at bobbyowsinski.com.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

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A 48 Track DAW For The iPad

Createdigitalmusic.com recently posted an article on a full-blown 48 track DAW for the iPad that looks pretty awesome. The app comes from a new company called Auria, and isn't available quite yet, but it's features are very complete, as you can see from the following:

• "48 mono/stereo, 24-bit/44.1kHz tracks, with recording for up to 24 tracks (you’ll obviously need a USB audio interface that can do that.)

• 64-bit, double precision mix architecture (something that just came out in the latest version of Pro Tools)

• Full delay compensation

• “Vintage-inspired” channel strips, with a desktop-like UI and VU/RMS switching

• Plug-in support. Out of the gate, PSPaudioware, Overloud, Fab Filter and Drumagog all work. You need to do custom wrapping of plug-ins for this host; standard plug-ins won’t work. The format is based on VST, but it’s not VST in the traditional sense in that they have to be custom-wrapped for sale through the app. 

• Dropbox, SoundCloud, AAF, MP3 export

• Advanced channel strips, EQ, expansion/compression and dynamic controls ready to go

• Convolution reverb. (This one blows my mind.)

• AAF import/export, making one definite application using this as a satellite for your desktop DAW"

Check out the video.


I expect this Winter NAMM show to be a big one for iPad apps, and as always, I'll report on everything I see. In the meantime, the Auria app is a good start.

You can read the entire article from createdigitalmusic.com here.

Ask Ken Scott A Question

Ken Scott has had a fabulous career, from being one of the 5 main Beatle engineers, engineering a number of Elton John and Duran Duran albums, to producing 4 David Bowie albums (including the illustrious Ziggy Stardust) and records for Jeff Beck, Devo, Missing Persons, The Tubes, Kansas, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Supertramp, and various solo Beatle singles, among many others.

Now is your chance to ask Ken a question on recording, production, or any of the artists he's worked with. He'll give you his answer during our session at NAMM on Thursday at 12:45. We'll post them here and on the Alfred Music Publishing website.

You can ask the question here, or just add a comment at the bottom of this post.

By the way, Ken will give a presentation at the Alfred booth (#4822) at noon, both Ken and I will be on at 12:45 (where I'll ask him your questions), and I'll be on at 1:15PM.

Silent Events Spread

An advertisement for Silence Events. 

Okay, here's something really new that I'm totally down with - silent events. The concept is that everyone at the event listens on headphones instead of a traditional sound system, and it seems to be the hot thing this year around Paris discos.

I know, I know, you're not a jetsetter or part of the Eurotrash scene. No problem, the trend is beginning to spread all over Europe, which means it's only a matter of time until it reaches the States.

Here's why so many like this idea:

1) The fidelity is so much better when you listen on headphones.

2) The privacy is way better too, both to those listening, and those not.

3) You don't have to worry about annoying your neighbors, which apparently is a big deal in Paris these days. In fact, there's a "no noise" curfew at 10PM for live events, and a silent outdoor disco keeps the riot squad away.

If these things ever catch on in a big way, a byproduct could be an increased demand for better audio quality, which is something that so many in the pro audio community have been hoping would happen for years. Don't hold your breath though. I'll believe it's for real when I get my first invite in LA and they ask me to bring my headphones. Then again, no one thought that the house concert scene would ever take off either. For more on silent events, check out this article.

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2 Tips For Recording Your Band

The people that read this blog run about 50/50 seasoned pros to beginners in the business, and this post is aimed directly at those that don't have a lot of recording experience. It's an excerpt from How To Make Your Band Sound Great that covers the mindset of recording, not the technical part.

There are so many great artists, bands, musicians, engineers, and producers out there, and so much written about how they work that's pretty accessible to anyone who wants to find it. The problem is that it's easy to get the impression that recording some great music is an easy process from reading some of these. There are certainly times when the planets align and you can catch lightning in a bottle, but just like anything else done well, it usually takes a lot of work. This excerpt aims to make someone who doesn't have that much recording experience feel a little better about themselves and their journey.
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"Whether you're recording yourselves with your own gear or are using a studio, the goal is the same - make the songs and the recordings sound as big, as polished, and as accessible to your audience (however large or small) as you can. With that being said, here are some things to be aware of:

1. You Hardly Ever Sound Great The First Time
Contrary to what you might have heard about hit records done on the first take, most recordings of any type require a lot of work to be any good. It takes time to get both the right sounds and performances, and unfortunately, these things usually can’t be rushed.

Perhaps the most difficult thing to learn when recording is not to expect gold-record-quality playing right off the bat. One of the worst ideas that you can get is that you have to be perfect every time you play. It just doesn’t happen that way so don’t get discouraged. Even the best studio players make some flubs or have slightly erratic time when they’re playing. They just go back and fix the problems afterwards and you can too. Yes, it does happen occasionally when someone gets extremely lucky and plays something terrific on the first take, but it’s a rare exception even for studio savvy and expert musicians. 

Recording is hard work. It’s not uncommon for people to slave over a part for days or even weeks until it feels right in the track. So if pros won’t settle for something that’s not the best it can be, why should you?

I know you’re probably thinking about all those hit records in the 50’s that were done in just a few takes, how the first Beatles record was done in one twelve hour session, and how in the glory days of Motown in Detroit they used to crank out three number one hits in three hours. All true. But don’t forget that all those famous 50’s artists honed their act from months and years of playing on the road - the Beatles played six sets a night for a year in Hamburg before they hit the studio, and the Motown studio musicians were the best of the best jazz musicians in Detroit with some hall-of-fame songwriters and arrangers.  But besides all that, the bar is set so much higher for recording these days. Sad but true that many of those incredible tracks just wouldn’t make it through the recording process if they were done today because of defects in the playing.

The fact of the matter is that recording today on any level is a demanding process, so don’t expect great results right away.  Just like a band learning a new song together, everything takes some time before it actually gels, so just be prepared to work until you get it.

As an example, I really believe that a typical overdub takes at least two days to record. The first day you work the part out until it’s a perfect fit for the song. The second day you actually perform it well, since now you know how to play it and can just concentrate on performance. The whole trick to to follow your gut. If you think deep down inside that you can do it better, then you probably can.

It’s A Lot Of Work
In the majority of cases, making a record is hard work. It takes a lot of time to work parts out, make them sound great, and play and/or sing them well. Sure there’s been a handful of records that have been done on the first take or in a couple of hours (mostly in the 50’s and early 60’s), but that’s a rare occurrence that involves as much luck as winning the lottery.

During the recording of one of my early band’s demo tapes, we became increasingly frustrated because it seemed to take forever (a whole 4 hours!) to record  six songs from our set. “We must really suck,” is what we told ourselves from that point until the band broke up, but only later when I began to regularly work in studios did I learn the real truth.  Recording is hard work and takes a lot of time to make something that will sound good.

Now these were songs that we’d been playing at gigs every weekend for about a year so we knew them backwards and forwards. Or so we thought! First of all, you never really know exactly what you’re playing and exactly what you sound like until you record yourself. Almost always you’ll find that something that you thought was gangbusters is in fact just a buster. You might be playing a line differently from the other guitar player. Maybe your rhythm pattern is different from what the drummer is playing. Maybe you just can’t hit that high like you thought you could.

The secret here is to be brutally honest with yourself about your playing and singing, just like in the previous chapters.  If it doesn’t sound great, either rehearse it until it does or don’t play it at all!"

You can read more book excerpts on my bobbyowsinski.com website.

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Bob Ludwig's 3 Mixing Tips

I saw this article in the Huffington Post (of all places) and I just had to excerpt some of it. Here are 3 mixing tips from mastering legend Bob Ludwig of Gateway Mastering. Of course, these a mixing tips from a mastering engineer's point of view, but excellent tips nonetheless. Go here to read the entire interview.

"Is there a top 3 "don'ts" that you have to fix in mastering?
Bob Ludwig:
1. The most common big criticism I have is not paying enough attention to the vocal. The vocal is everything to the success of a song. Make it loud enough to be able to hear the lyrics. The problem is, if the vocal level is too high, all the energy of the track disappears, if it is too low, you can't understand what is being said. If you want to be able to hear every word and you are mixing it, be sure to have a friend who does NOT know the words come in and tell you what is being sung. Once you know the lyrics, you can mix them very low and still understand them, but everyone else might miss some important words. It is hard, but crucial to get the right level.

Always cover yourself by doing one or two extra mixes with the vocal raised +0.5dB and another +1dB. Some languages need extra vocal level as more nuances of the language can easily get lost. Louder vocals are usually found on country music mixes, French and Japanese mixes.

2. Vocal sibilance not contained is a problem. As in item "1", some producers will make the vocal as bright as musically possible in order to have it be intelligible yet tucked into the track. Sometimes the vocal is simply too sibilant. These days where most big projects are being cut for vinyl it is even more important to control sibilance as it creates high amplitude, high frequency grooves that are beyond the ability of all but the best cartridges to reproduce and one gets a "spitting" sound on the sibilance. Controlling sibilance in the mix is by far the best place to do it as the de-esser will only affect the voice while de-essing during mastering necessitates compromising the brightness of the entire track.

3. A mix with a bright vocal and a dull drum sound is really a problem. The all important snare takes up a lot of spectrum and trying to brighten it with eq will make the bright vocal even brighter and quickly become unacceptable. It is a real trap that can only be helped by mastering from the TV track with a separate vocal a cappella track, something that most often is not an option."

If you're going to send you mix off to a mastering engineer, heed these points and you'll get much better results.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

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Rod Stewart "I'm Losing You" Song Analysis

Reader Chris Benedetto requested an oldie but a goodie, a song from Rod Stewart's first solo album Every Picture Tells A Story in 1971called "I'm Losing You." The song featured all of the members of The Faces, Rod's, band at the time, but the credits were vaguely listed because of contractual reasons. "(I Know) I'm Losing You" was actually a hit for The Temptations in 1966, but Rod and The Faces version is a much more energetic, rockin' cut. Like all song analysis, we'll look at the song form, the arrangement, the sound and the production.

The Song
You can tell that "I'm Losing You" is basically a live cut in the studio due to it's looseness and the fact that not everyone hits the cues on time, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have an interesting form. The song looks like this:

Guitar/Bass Intro, Song Intro, Verse, B Section, Chorus, Bridge, Solos, Drums, Guitar/Bass Intro, Verse

The song is basically a jam based around a song and very much in the spirit of be bop jam where the head of the song is played, there's a lot of soloing, then the head is played again at the end. In this case, the basic sections of the song are stated at the beginning, but only the very intro is returned to at the end.

The Arrangement
There's not much of an arrangement, since there are no real set parts and everyone is playing more or less free form. Here's what the arrangement elements look like:

The Foundation: The drums, tambourine during the drum solo

The Rhythm: Bass, guitar, piano

The Pad: None

The Lead: Lead vocal

The Fills: Piano, guitar

The Sound
The Faces were known for some pretty thin-sounding recordings, but this is not one of them. The drums are very full sounding and recorded in stereo, as is the piano (something not found much in 1971 recordings).  

Ron Wood's guitar was always kinda thin sounding until he joined The Stones. Here's it's panned to the left a big with a nice long reverb wash. Ronnie Lane's bass does sound very thin and distorted and is panned slightly to the right, and instantly disappears in the mix when all the instruments enter. Rod Stewart's vocal is clear and not overly compressed, with a touch of the same reverb as on the guitar. Ian McLagan's piano is very dry and in your face, which adds a nice layering element to the recording.

The Production
Rod was the producer of the album, but as was many the case back then, that probably meant more of selecting the take and getting the feel rather than directing the show like it is today. That's pretty much what happens when the recording is built around a jam.

Send me your requests for song analysis.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

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An Excellent Nashville Adventure

Ken and Bobby at RCA Studio B and their excellent piano.

Let me tell you about an excellent adventure that the esteemed producer/engineer Ken Scott and I just returned from. We were invited to speak at the TI:ME Conference in Louisville over the weekend, but the trip was extended to include engagements at Belmont University and SAE in Nashville on Monday and Tuesday. Although we usually each give separate presentations, we decided to combine what we both do because of the time restraints. In three of the sessions, I interviewed Ken about his past work with The Beatles, Bowie, Supertramp and more. On the other session, Ken interviewed me about my various books.

Amp stands in Studio B so the musicians didn't play too loud.

We gave two presentations in the lovely city of Louisville (home of the Kentucky Derby), where one night we were treated to an excellent concert by the US Army Field Band. It certainly makes you proud that a service band can be composed of so many great musicians, and their big band music was the equal to any great concert by just about any band today, bar none. Good music is just good music, no matter the genre.

On Sunday we drove up to Nashville, where we were met by studio designer Carl Tatz and multi-platinum engineer Bob Bullock (I absolutely love the Shania Twain records that he's done). Carl took us to a home studio that he built that features his Phantom Focus System. This turned out to be an incredible treat. Carl's system is more about the interface and tuning of the speakers rather than the speakers themselves and the results are tremendous. I've never heard such pin-point panning in the stereo field, or depth of field. You've got to hear a PFS system to believe it Everything else pales in comparison. We spent of a lot of the afternoon just listening to music for the sheer enjoyment of it. When was the last time that happened?

After that we had a great Indian dinner with award-winning film composer and former LA native Chris Boardman. I think it's very safe to say that he does not miss the City of Angels one bit.

On Tuesday it was off to Belmont University were they drowned us in southern hospitality, first with a lunch with their music and recording faculty, then off to a tour of the their excellent studio facilities. Belmont is lucky to have an endowment from Mike Curb to buy up some of the greatest studios on the planet rather than see them turned into parking lots.  First we were off to Owen Bradley's former studio "The Quanset Hut," home of such classics as Patsy Cline's, "Crazy", Brenda Lee's "I'm Sorry" and Bobby Vinton's "Blue Velvet." Then it was off to the former RCA Studio B, where we were amazed to see the same room and gear that Elvis, Roy Orbison, Ernest Tub, Porter Wagoner, Floyd Cramer and Chet Atkins used. Wow! Then it was off to see the church turned studio at Oceanway. That's a full day in itself, but there was more.

The cabinet that Elvis kicked and broke (and refused to fix).

At 5:30 we addressed a packed house of students at Belmont and unfortunately, they had to turn a few students away due to fire codes. That said, it was really great to feel their energy and enthusiasm, and we both really enjoyed their questions and interactions. Belmont has a truly wonderful program that touches so many facets of the music industry (I could go on and on about how impressed I was), but a college is nothing without it's faculty, and it was great to see the high caliber of pros that the program employed. Thanks to all for a great time and your hospitality, especially Professor Flo (Mark Volman, of The Turtles, Zappa and Flo and Edie fame) for arranging our visit and Sara Cates and Jim Kaiser for facilitating our tour and talk. One thing that was interesting though - there were more females than males in the audience (which is highly unusual in the audio business), probably thanks to Ken's animal magnetism.

Ken, Bob Welch, Bobby

That night, we were lucky enough to have dinner with former Fleetwood Mac singer/writer/guitar player and solo artist Bob Welch. "Ebony Eyes" has always been one of may favorite songs so it was a treat to finally meet him. But wait, there's more.

On Tuesday we started the day off over at Mayfair Mastering, where the legendary (and new AES Fellow) Glenn Meadows played us some choice Steely Dan cuts in his fine new room. If you know Glenn, then you know that everything he touches can only be excellent.

Then it was off to SAE to speak to more inquiring minds. SAE is different from most recording schools in that it's a fast track program designed to get students on their way into the business in a minimum amount of time. Once again, it was great to have the opportunity to address a great group of future professionals. You could just see the hunger to learn in their eyes. Thanks to Crystal Armentrout to facilitating our talk and Alan Shacklock for the great introduction.

Then it was off to the airport and back to LA and business as usual. Thanks Mike Lawson (my champion) for all your help and being our tour manager, and to Alfred Music Publishing for sponsoring our trip. Nashville, I have a feeling we're going to see you again soon.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

6 Steps In Avoiding A Conflict

If you're in the music business in just about any way, shape or form, you're creative on some level. And let's face it - if you're creative, you have a vision. That vision can be about how a song should be written, how the music should sound, how your project is marketed, or any of a million other similar things.

But whenever creative types get together, sooner or later the sparks may fly as those visions come into conflict. That's why it's essential to have a strategy in place to deal with the head butting as it arises. Here's an excerpt from Chapter 11 of my book The Music Producer's Handbook that covers just how to handle those inevitable disagreements.
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"Being in any relationship requires at least some compromise and working with a group of musicians is no different from what you’d expect between family, friends, girlfriends, boyfriends, wives, husbands, bosses and co-workers. There are times where you just have to bend in order to keep the peace. 

While compromise is easy for some people, others have a personality that would never allow it and a conflict occurs. Here are some effective steps that you can take to state your case in a way that should resolve or mediate the conflict.

1. Cool off first - Conflicts can’t be solved when emotions are running hot. Take some time to get away from the problem for a bit and brainstorm on exactly what the conflict is, how it was caused, and most important, a possible solution.

2. Present accolades, support and respect - The first thing to do is acknowledge the person’s accomplishments and talent. Something like, “I want to start by saying that I think the tracks we’ve captured are really great, and you’re playing your parts way better than I ever thought possible.” 

3. Analyze why the problem occurred - If you give a clear explanation of why you think there’s a problem or why the problem or conflict has occurred, you set the initial groundwork for solving the conflict. If the other person knows exactly what your side of the story is, you might find more often than not that you’re both on the same page, but on different sides of it.

4. Take responsibility and use “I” messages - If you have a part in a conflict that you’re aware of, take responsibility and own up to it, but make sure that everything is from your point of view. For instance, it’s best to say, “I think you were really flat on that part,” rather than “Everybody knows that you always sing that part flat,” or worse, “You’re singing sucks, man.”

5. Describe what I or we need so the problem doesn’t happen again - This is the solution from your point of view. “We really need you to be here a half-hour before the session so you have time to warm up. That way we won’t waste any studio time, which is costing us money.”

6. Support their success - Tell him that you want him to win, because if he wins, so do you. “The better you sound, the better we all sound,” or “Do you know how great this is going to sound once you get that part down? It’s going to kill!”

To read additional excerpts from this and other books, go the excerpt section of bobbyowsinski.com.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

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If Songs Were Programmed

This one comes via my buddy Gary Myer. Imagine if songs were programmed the same way as software. We'd probably have something like what appears on the left.

If this doesn't make sense, go here to have a listen to "Hey Jude" and take special note the lyrics.

As a brief aside, former Beatles engineer Ken Scott told me an interesting story about "Hey Jude." The song was actually recorded at Trident Studios instead of Abbey Road because Trident had a 8 track recorder while Abbey Road was still 4, and The Beatles felt they needed more tracks for the song. After the mix was completed, it was brought back to Abbey Road for mastering where they found out that there was absolutely no high frequencies on the mix because the speakers at Trident were so hyped on the high end, making it sound muffled. Ken, George Martin and the boys frantically spent the next day EQing to try to save the mix, and the final version that we now all know is the result. There's more to the story, but you'll have to wait for our upcoming book, Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust, to read the whole thing.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.

6 Tips For Auditioning For The Tour

It's the dream of many musicians to get a gig with the touring band with a major artist. I wrote a book called The Touring Musician's Handbook that covers the ins and outs of what it takes to get that gig, so I thought it might be a good time for an excerpt. Here's a bit from Chapter 5 - "Becoming A Touring Musician."
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"Depending on how you look at it, an audition can be really fun or so stressful that it makes you want to loose your lunch. The more prepared you are, the less likely you are to do the latter, so here are a number of things to help you through the process.

1. Know The Material
You can be a great player with chops that came from Mount Olympus, but the only thing that the artist or MD (musical director) cares about is if you can play the artist’s material well show after show. If you go into an audition thinking that you’re going to wing it, you’re wasting everyone's time, in which case you should be prepared for a very short audition.

First off, I want the person auditioning to play the music exactly like the record. I don’t want to hear them improvise, and I don’t want to hear their take on it. I want to hear them play it exactly with the right feel, just like they were playing Mozart or Beethoven. I want them to respect the music regardless of if it’s Pink’s music, or Cher’s or Janet Jackson’s, I want them to play it exactly as you hear it on the record. Then if I ask them to change it, they’re changing it from a place where I know that they know what it is so they can take their own spin on it after the fact.
Paul Mirkovich

Go-to guys like guitarist Peter Thorn (Melissa Etheridge, Chris Cornell, Jewel, Don Henley) will learn as much of the artist’s catalog possible before the audition, going as far as to dial in the tone of the parts as well. It’s a lot of work, but if you’re up against another guy that did that and you didn’t, who do you think will get the gig?

The other thing is that you have to be not only better than everyone else, but you have to be different. It’s basically a sales pitch. In five or ten minutes, you have to prove to them that if they hire you, they’ll get more for their money than hiring anybody else.
Ed Wynne

2. Don’t Be Late
This will just about eliminate you right from the start. Being late indicates that you have a reliability problem, which is the last thing anyone wants on the road. There are a lot of great players out there, and most of them are punctual and reliable. Who do you think they’re going to pick?

3. How You Look Counts
Not only does clothing and grooming make a good first impression, but it’s important to see how you visually fit on stage with the rest of the band. It’s possible to fit the bill perfectly as a player but still not get the gig because of the way you look.

As an example, an accomplished touring player that I know recently got a gig with a major artist that lasted one day. He went back to the hotel and received a call saying, “We’re good. Don’t come back to rehearsal tomorrow.” They just didn’t like the way he looked against the other players in the band.

You might get rejected because you have a shaved head and so does the artist or another player player in the band and they don’t want two people on stage with that look. Or you might have blond hair and so does the artist. Or you have facial hair and no one else in the band does. Nothing personal, sometimes you just don’t fit in.

I always felt that if someone is auditioning players that he’s not already aware of, it’s a clue that he’s looking for something else besides the way you play or the gear that you have. It’s a good tip that they may be looking more at how you look or at your age. I’ve seen that a lot.
Mike Holmes

4. Your On-stage Demeanor Also Counts
If possible, get a DVD or watch a video of the artist and her band playing live and take notice of the on-stage demeanor of the players. A lot of people get gigs because their physicality is right, which means how they look when they’re playing the music. Maybe the artist wants energy on stage and really likes it when a player is so into it that he’s moving all around. On the other hand, some artists just want you to stand there and play, leaving any showmanship up to them. You’ve got to know your place, so you have to tailor your demeanor to the artist.

5. Bring The Right Gear
You’ve got to tailor the gear to the gig. If you were auditioning for the job as the Strat player for Lynrd Skynrd, it wouldn’t be a great idea to bring a Les Paul or what some perceive as a metal guitar like a Jackson. If you were auditioning for the touring band of 50 Cent, you wouldn’t bring a drum kit with the snare tuned up high for reggae or ska. Can the artist or MD imagine how you’d play with the right gear? Sure they can. But once again, if everything were equal between two players, the one who will get the gig is the one that has the right sound at the audition. That way, no guessing, imagining or wondering come into play. Remember, what the artist wants most is security and one less thing to worry about. Whoever can provide that gets the gig.

6. Be Nice To Everyone
It’s important that you’re nice to everyone, including the crew, while you’re at the audition. If these people are going to spend months on a bus with you, they’d prefer that you didn’t have an attitude of superiority and were very easy to get along with. Remember, if it’s a toss-up between you and someone else, the one who will get the gig will be the one that everyone believes they can live with."

To read additional excerpts from this and my other books, go to bobbyowsinski.com.

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David Gilmour's Recording Studio

Here's what the money from Dark Side Of The Moon will buy you, as we look at Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour's houseboat studio. The album stayed on the charts for 741 weeks (that's 15 years) and sold 50 million copies world-wide. I think I'd buy something like this as well. The show this is from is kind of wacky, but it's a look at his studio that few have seen.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.